Baykar-Leonardo team-up to bridge defense gaps, spur warfare innovation

The newly announced partnership between Italian defense giant Leonardo and Turkish drone powerhouse Baykar marks a milestone in advancing future aviation warfare systems, leveraging their combined expertise.

Highlighting Europe’s growing demand for UAVs, executives from both companies emphasized the collaboration’s potential to address critical supply gaps and foster innovation through a joint venture that aims to produce a range of cutting-edge aerial solutions.

The collaboration, agreed and announced on Thursday, will leverage Baykar’s expertise in unmanned aerial platforms and Leonardo’s strengths in mission systems, payload design and aerospace certification.

The two are setting up a joint company that will use the companies’ existing facilities to produce unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The executives said they had already started talking with their respective national military forces.

The deal will also give Baykar a bridgehead in Europe, something the group has been planning for a long time.

The cooperation covers development of UAVs and related systems, especially in Europe, Selçuk Bayraktar, chair of Baykar, said following the signing ceremony in Rome.

He described the deal as an “opportunity to build aerial supremacy,” given drones’ key role in the future.

The partnership will see the two companies combine complementary capabilities, “from joint platform development to the development of platforms that we call light platforms, light smart platforms,” Bayraktar told Anadolu Agency (AA).

He said Baykar’s heavy-class combat drone Akıncı is at the forefront of the cooperation, but it is not limited to it, as he underscored work would also be carried out on the unmanned fighter jet Kızılelma, as well as the company’s other platforms.

“There is cooperation on all platforms, such as Bayraktar TB3, Bayraktar TB2, and Kızılelma, which will also be in this cooperation,” Bayraktar said.

“And in addition to this, there will be cooperation on light platforms developed by Baykar, such as mini smart cruise missiles, different variants of mini intelligent cruise missiles, Kemankes, and other light smart platforms.”

The Istanbul-based company has become one of the most prolific drone exporters after having gained prominence through their use by Ukraine’s military against Russian forces. In December it bought Italian aircraft producer Piaggio Aerospace.

It produces light and heavy drones, as well as developing the autonomous jet-engine powered ones, and is betting on autonomous air-to-air combat drones taking over the role of fighter jets.

The joint venture’s first product, expected in about 18 months, will be based on Baykar’s high-altitude, heavy lift drone Akıncı, which will then be adapted to customers’ requests.

Europe’s gap in drone industry

The deal comes as defense companies scramble to respond to the surge in European military spending.

The agreement aims to address Europe’s weakness in the drone industry and will take advantage of a European UAV market that Baykar and Leonardo estimated at $100 billion over the next 10 years.

Bayraktar said that the geostrategic tectonic fracture that the world has been exposed to is upsetting the balances all over the world in a sense, but Baykar’s close defense cooperation with Europe will contribute to the world experiencing this rupture in a more balanced way.

Türkiye has already been a major trading partner of Europe for many years, but such cooperation in the field of defense will strengthen the relations, he stressed.

He noted that Eastern Europe chose the Bayraktar TB2, and Poland was the sixth NATO country purchasing it.

“Now, with this alliance, it will be stacked all over Europe,” he said.

Roberto Cingolani, chief executive of Leonardo, said this process must start as soon as possible because there is a very high demand for UAVs across Europe, but the supply is insufficient.

Cingolani added that this could be an important opportunity to accelerate the supply in the European defense space.

Cingolani and Bayraktar said that the joint venture was open, in the future, to providing the drone linked to the next-generation fighter jet developed by the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) consortium, but added that it was not the goal of the partnership.

He also said the new venture was compatible and would not compete with Europe’s Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) drone, first unveiled in 2018 and to be developed with Airbus and Dassault Aviation.

“The Eurodrone program is an interesting one with a specific, very different, application and mission, and we are obviously committed to that,” the executive said.

Leonardo expects from Baykar much more electronics, sensor technology, and especially AI and algorithm integration for the UAVs the Turkish company produces, Cingolani told AA.

These developments will enable the production of much more advanced UAVs, capable of performing different missions, in different sizes, small, large and very large vehicles, Cingolani said.

Bayraktar said Baykar is the world’s largest UAV developer and manufacturer. “Baykar is a world-leading organization that earns more than 90% of all its revenues from exports by selling UAVs to 36 countries,” he noted.

Stating that Baykar has already integrated the radars produced by Leonardo into its systems, Bayraktar said: “But for the last four or five months, we have been working intensively on how we can cooperate. As of today, the letter of goodwill has been signed.”

He said Leonardo also has a great infrastructure to develop future technologies in other areas of the defense industry and unmanned systems, including radars, payloads, and sensors, as well as artificial intelligence.

‘High-tech alliance’

According to Bayraktar, the cooperation between Türkiye and Italy would form an important cornerstone.

“I think it is also very important in terms of cooperation between our countries in other areas of technology, because let us not just see this as a defense cooperation.

“In fact, this is a high-tech alliance, which, as you know, creates the greatest value in the world, and in a sense, it is the high-tech innovation that drags the whole world and transforms our lives,” Bayraktar noted.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto called the Baykar-Leonardo partnership an important step toward innovation and international cooperation.

“In a rapidly changing global landscape, the relationship between Italy and Turkey is poised to assume an increasingly pivotal role. From an industrial perspective, we are at the forefront of anticipating the future geopolitical scenarios,” Crosetto wrote on social media platform X.

He expressed “profound satisfaction” on the signing of the agreement, adding that the partnership represents a “significant step toward innovation and international cooperation, consolidating Italy’s position in the defence and security sector.”

“The creation of an Italian-based joint venture is an important opportunity to strengthen Italy’s operational and technological capabilities, and contribute to global security and technological progress,” Crosetto added.

Regarding the location of the production centers, Bayraktar said decisions “are being made.”

“As you know, we acquired Piaggio Aerospace in Italy, which has a serious production infrastructure, and it can also be a production center there.”

Leonardo has more than 100 facilities in Italy alone, and they are spread across the world, while Baykar’s facilities are a bit more concentrated in the form of campuses, he explained.

Asked whether the Italian Navy is interested in the Bayraktar TB3 UAV, which can land and take off from short-runway ships, Bayraktar said: “I think it will be interested. Because Bayraktar TB3 is the first platform in the world that can land and take off from a short-runway ship.

“And it will be a very big force multiplier when it starts its mission.”

In December, Italy took a delivery of its new multipurpose amphibious assault ship Trieste.

As of this year, Baykar aims to launch TB3 from the Turkish amphibious assault ship TCG Anadolu, he said, adding that studies and mass production are currently underway.

“The land version is already rolling off the production line. On the other hand, we have already started the production of the naval version, and we aim to launch it this year,” he said.

Source: Daily Sabah